Food Insecurity and the effects on Psychosocial Development of youth.

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• Abstract

It has become accessible and affordable to create a middle-class appearance with cheap clothes at thrift shops and yard sales. Electronic ‘necessities’ such as televisions and the newest cellphones can be purchased with installment plans to become affordable. The hungry can very frequently make the appearance of being financially stable. Forty-five million Americans are living below the poverty line, and forty-two million people live in food-insecure households. Hunger doesn’t discriminate and anyone can be the victim of food insecurity either in a chronic (on-going) or acute (temporary) way, affecting age groups differently. Food insecurity serves as a marker for identifying children with delayed psychosocial and academic development as well as children are risk of mental health problems. The parents of food insecure children in the United States fear being unable to feed their children and impede their academic and social development. It not only depresses the starting point, but it also affects the upward trajectory of a child’s education from the moment that the hungry student enters a classroom.

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Food security is having enough food, having nutritious food and being able to get food in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity exists whenever there is limited accessibility of nutritious food in an unsustainable means of acquisition (Wu et al., 2012). Have you ever had to choose between, paying utilities, housing, medical care, transportation or education over food? To you it may be an unfamiliar concept, but to many Americans, it is a daily reality. Food is a necessity that fuels your body, provides energy and keeps us alive; but it is not a priority when it comes to credit. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), forty-five million Americans are living below the poverty line, and forty-two million people live in food-insecure households. Individuals making less than minimum wage find themselves without the ability to purchase food.